by John Fay, USA TODAY Sports

by John Fay, USA TODAY Sports

Pitching coach Bryan Price will be named the 61st manager of the Reds at a press conference Tuesday.

Price and general manager Walt Jocketty did not return phone calls Monday evening.

Price replaces Dusty Baker, who was fired after six seasons on the job.

Price and Triple-A manager Jim Riggleman were the only confirmed candidates for the job.

Price has been the Reds' pitching coach since the 2010 season. Before coming to the Reds, he spent 10 years as a big league pitching coach -- first with the Seattle Mariners (2000-2005), then with the Arizona Diamondbacks (2006-2009).

He began his coaching career in the Mariners' minor-league system. Price, 51, never pitched in the majors.

He went 31-19 with a 3.74 ERA in the Angels' and Mariners' minor-leagues systems. He played at Cal Berkeley. He is still the all-time leader in innings pitched there.

Price has turned the Reds' pitching around. In his four years, the club has finished seventh, 12th, third and fourth in the National League in ERA. In the three years before he arrived, the club was seventh, 13th and 15th.

Young pitchers -- like Aroldis Chapman, Mike Leake, Tony Cingrani, Sam LeCure, J.J. Hoover and Logan Ondrusek -- have developed on his watch. Johnny Cueto and Homer Bailey took the next step under Price.

He's also done a nice job with retreads, like Manny Parra and Alfredo Simon.

Pitching coach is not the normal track to a manager's job. But John Farrell in Boston and Bud Black in San Diego have shown former pitchers can be successful managers.

Price never managed anywhere on any level.

The problem with the Reds -- perceived or real -- was with the offense. Can a pitching-oriented guy turn that around?

There's some sentiment that the Reds need a fiery manager. Price is not that -- at least not publicly. He's soft-spoken and thoughtful.

Price, out of loyalty to manager Bob Melvin, resigned as pitching coach of the Arizona Diamondbacks in May of 2009 after Melvin was fired.

That made Price a free agent when the Reds were looking for a new pitching coach after the 2009 season.

"I think he'd be unbelievable," Bronson Arroyo said when asked about Price as manager. "He's as organized as anyone in the game, he holds people as accountable as well as anyone I've seen. He doesn't buy into stereotypical things in the game, things that other people buy into that I don't feel are relevant. Price looks at evidence. He's a freaking smart guy, he makes his decision on reasonable evidence. Sometimes in baseball we go by hunches, what someone else said or they way things have gone in the past. He doesn't do that."